23.12.2020

MEASURE 60/40 WILL CONTINUE UNTIL SEPTEMBER 2021

"Keep me" will be transformed from January 1 into 75% of workers' insurance income

"We are extending the 60/40 anti-crisis measure until September 2021. At the next Council of Ministers on Wednesday, we will accept BGN 106 million for pensioners in January - BGN 50 each, as we continue to give during the pandemic."

This was stated by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov during a working meeting with members of the government.

"We are continuing the 60/40 measure until September 2021, so that there is no speculation about how long the money is," said Prime Minister Borissov.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stressed that all other measures to support business during the pandemic continue to work.

The Minister of Labor and Social Policy Denitsa Sacheva reports that the measures 60/40 and 80/20 will continue to operate next year, and the measure for closed businesses "Keep me" will be transformed from January 1 into 75% of the insurance income of workers for October 2020 and they will receive more funds.

BGN 50 million are provided for the new design of "Keep me". The measure 80/20 will be financed with European funds, as the goal of the Operational Program "Human Resources Development" is a reorganized resource in the amount of BGN 40 million. "For the measure 60/40 next year we have BGN 600 million, which will be enough to extend it almost until September, so employers and employees must be calm that there will be support from the state," said Mrs. Sacheva.

Minister Sacheva summarized the state's support so far under the three socio-economic measures. "So far, under the measure 60/40, BGN 627 million have been paid, 250,000 jobs have been preserved. Under the measure 80/20 with a supplement of BGN 250 for hotels, restaurants, tourism and transport, BGN 23 million have been paid, a total of 24,858 jobs have been preserved,” said Mrs. Sacheva. Regarding the measure "Keep me", which is currently known as "BGN 24 per day" and which is to be transformed next year, the Minister of Labor and Social Policy said that in December 4,653 applications were received from employers for compensation of 22,839 employees. "Payments have already started to be made, and will be paid during the days between Christmas and New Year," said Mrs. Sacheva.

With regard to targeted assistance for families with children currently studying remotely, there are 40,000 applications and 23,520 families have been approved.

"With over BGN 40 million we will support small and medium-sized enterprises, and in December 95 contracts were concluded under the procedure "Improvement of production capacity in small and medium-sized enterprises". This was reported by the Minister of Economy, Mr. Lachezar Borisov. He informed that under the voucher scheme for providing services for information and communication technologies, 450 vouchers worth a total of nearly BGN 8 million have been issued so far. "Absolutely all 25 contracts for financing innovation projects worth BGN 7 million have been signed through the National Innovation Fund," the economy minister said. He reports that under the procedure for liquidity support for medium-sized enterprises, which is worth up to BGN 150,000 per enterprise, 1285 project proposals have been ranked. There are also reserves, with which the total number of project proposals becomes 1703.

"What we have done is to restructure the budget of the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness" to provide the full resource for all 1703 project proposals," added Mr. Lachezar Borisov.

The Minister also informed that by the end of the day new conditions for applying for the business support procedure, which is carried out together with the National Revenue Agency, will be published.